Why Do We Wait Until The Last Minute?

What’s the appeal of waiting last minute? Whether it’s doing our holiday shopping, preparing for finals or telling someone that we love them, we hold it off until the very last second. No, it’s not healthy. It gives us immense anxiety but we do it anyway. Some people say they “work better under pressure.” Others try and pull off the cool, calm and collected attitude when they really can’t.

I’ll have to admit that I’m a procrastinator at heart. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s procrastinating. Procrastination is a terrible habit that’s hard to break. But I’m curious about why we wait to take care of the important things in our life, while at the same time we’re impatient about everything else.

When it comes to my studies, I prioritize certain things more than others. For some reason, if I'm assigned a 20-page paper and a four-page paper, I'm most likely going to save the 20-page paper for last. But why? Considering all the more effort I'm going to have to put into a 20- page paper, I would much rather push down the assignment for as long as I can.

Of course, a month before the deadline you'll probably have no genuine ambition or motivation to start the paper. You'll simply wait until the week before to actually write it. There's a strong relationship between time and stress. If you're not stressed, you're not going to do it with time on your side. But if you are stressed, you're going to do it with limited time. Our brain works in weird ways and sometimes I just can't get my brain to accept deadlines without any stress.

Now, let's talk about last minute holiday shoppers. You know who you are and I'm right there with you. Similar to my last minute completed assignments, I'm even better at buying gifts before Christmas Eve is over. Holiday shopping secretly sucks. We want to keep our bank accounts intact for as long as possible but we know from the moment the holiday season rolls around, we're going to see some numbers drop.

For some of us, we want to save up money, while others have no idea how to shop for their loved ones. Therefore, they'll wait until the very last second to complete the dreadful task. If there's one thing I learned this holiday season, it's when you see a perfect gift online, order it because within the next eight minutes and 52 seconds you'll never see it again.

When it comes to expressing your feelings or saying those three words we all hold off on, there's one thing we can't do and it's to wait. This doesn't compare to studying or last minute shopping. Telling someone how you feel has a much shorter time period. People come and they go. When you catch the slightest feeling for another person your entire world becomes a ticking time bomb. Tell them before they leave, tell them before things change. This is a deadline that can't be missed.

Clearly, we do what we do because we simply do. For some of us, there's not enough time in the day to accomplish all of our tasks. But if we organize our lives and structure our time, we'll have enough time for a lot more. Together we should stop waiting until the last minute for everything.

I'm The Girl Without A 'Friend Group'

For example, I'll be sitting in the lounge with the people on my floor, just talking about how everyone's days went. Someone will turn to someone else and ask something along the lines of, "When are we going to so-and-so's place tonight?" Sometimes it'll even be, "Are you ready to go to so-and-so's place now? Okay, we'll see you later, Taylor!"

It's little things like that, little things that remind me I don't have a "friend group." And it's been like that forever. I don't have the same people to keep me company 24 hours of the day, the same people to do absolutely everything with, and the same people to cling to like glue. I don't have a whole cast of characters to entertain me and care for me and support me. Sometimes, especially when it feels obvious to me, not having a "friend group" makes me feel like a waste of space. If I don't have more friends than I can count, what's the point in trying to make friends at all?

I can tell you that there is a point. As a matter of fact, just because I don't have a close-knit clique doesn't mean I don't have any friends. The friends I have come from all different walks of life, some are from my town back home and some are from across the country. I've known some of my friends for years, and others I've only known for a few months. It doesn't really matter where they come from, though. What matters is that the friends I have all entertain me, care for me, and support me. Just because I'm not in that "friend group" with all of them together doesn't mean that we can't be friends to each other.

Still, I hate avoiding sticking myself in a box, and I'm not afraid to seek out friendships. I've noticed that a lot of the people I see who consider themselves to be in a "friend group" don't really venture outside the pack very often. I've never had a pack to venture outside of, so I don't mind reaching out to new people whenever.

I'm not going to lie, when I hear people talking about all the fun they're going to have with their "friend group" over the weekend, part of me wishes I could be included in something like that. I do sometimes want to have the personality type that allows me to mesh perfectly into a clique. I couldn't tell you what it is about me, but there is some part of me that just happens to function better one-on-one with people.

I hated it all my life up until very recently, and that's because I've finally learned that not having a "friend group" is never going to be the same as not having friends.

Your Health Journey Is A Marathon, Not A Sprint

When you first start to do something, you have all of the motivation in the world to accomplish that goal set out in front of you, especially when it comes to being healthier. The problem is as you continue through this journey and food and laziness kick in, motivation slips. It's human, and it happens to everyone no matter how physically strong they are.

Trying to be healthier doesn't always mean losing weight. It can be so your knees don't ache as much, so you don't feel as out of breath climbing stairs, or any goal you have set for yourself. Being healthier is personal and different from person to person.

I will be the first to admit that there are plenty of changes I would love to make about myself. From my weight to my body type and many other things about myself inside and out. I am by no means the most confident person about how I look, but I have worked hard for the past year to be an overall healthier person.

Becoming healthier isn't about looking thinner or fitting into a specific size of clothes. It is about taking care of yourself from eating better to working out more. There comes a feeling of confidence in what your body can do if you put a little love in it.

Perfection takes time, and I know firsthand how frustrating trying to be healthier can be.

Pizza tastes so much better than salad. It is so easy to fall into a rhythm of something that seems never to change whether that is your weight or your mile time. Sadly, you can't build a city, or become healthier overnight.

We see people who are thinner, curvier, smarter, faster, and so much more than us. We all waste time comparing ourselves to people around us and on our timelines, but some of our biggest strengths are our individuality and the gift of getting back up after falling down.

All I can say is, please don't give up on your goal of being healthier because this is solely for you. We can have a great support system in the world and have everyone in our corner, but that isn't enough.

You need yourself. You need to know that if you don't entirely put yourself in this journey, then you won't fully succeed. Your commitment to bettering yourself can keep you going even if you want to give up.

Your motivation may not be at its peak level right now, and you may have every cell in your body screaming at you to quit. Don't do it. Prove to yourself that you can keep going no matter what. Not giving up will be worth it. The results and taking the hard way will make you a stronger person inside and out.

You can do this. You can do anything you want to accomplish if you just believe in yourself. You need to understand that becoming healthier takes endurance. There will be periods where you slow down and may not be going at your fastest pace. The difference is that you are not giving up and you are still trying and moving.

Don't treat becoming healthier as a sprint: short term and quick. That mentality will only leave you feeling deflated and defeated. It is a life-long marathon of pacing yourself and pushing yourself further than ever before.